


The Uncanny Majesty

by not_a_tuna_fish_ish



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Dream is kind of a mediocre person, Fighting, Guns, Love, M/M, Mud, Nature, Poaching, Running, Survival, The Desert, Water, an oasis, because LOVE or something, cold nights, come read this fanfiction and find out~, enemies to lovers (?), hoglins, killing and death, love is a survival thing?, or will they give in and murder each other, sleeping, tags may be added as the story goes on, the Jungle, they have to cuddle for warmth, they'll both change, thirst, will Techno be able to overcome his animal instincts?, will a hunter and an half-animal be able to coexist?, your honor they’re in LOVE
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-12 22:15:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29891340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/not_a_tuna_fish_ish/pseuds/not_a_tuna_fish_ish
Summary: Dream, a poacher, hunts hoglins for their prized tusks. One day in the jungle he stumbles upon Technoblade- a half human, half hoglin hybrid. Although Techno has a pair of beautiful ivory tusks that Dream could sell for a lot of money, he can’t bring himself to do it. He spares Technoblade and they run away together. Dream is now a traitor to the other poachers and Techno has a price on his head. Both of them are fleeing for their lives, all the while something strange and beautiful grows between them.
Relationships: Clay | Dream/Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 139





	1. The Desert Rose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I hope you’re all doing well. I really have nothing to say, other than that I love reading your comments and constructive criticism is always welcome. Also, updates for this story will be posted on twitter, @not_a_tuna_fish . 
> 
> I hope you enjoy~

Dream made his way through the jungle, using his machete to cut away low hanging vines and branches, tearing through the thick underbrush of leaves and plants. 

“It’s gotta be here somewhere,” he says to his companion. The other man also has a gun. 

“I saw it run just east of that big tree, the one we passed with the red leaves, remember?”

Dream nodded. “But how do you know it was east? Are you sure?” 

“I saw the sun on its face before it turned and ran. The sun sets in the west, and so it must have ran east.” 

“Okay, shh.” Dream heard a noise like a branch breaking, sharp and sudden. “Shh,” he said again, as he crouched down into the dense overgrowth, pulling his companion down by the jacket sleeve. 

“It’s here,” Dream whispered. 

Through the leaves, tinged with gold from the late sun, he saw the creature. It had the body of a man and it was hunched over in pain. It turned it’s head and Dream saw a snout and a pair of ivory tusks that curled up in a spiral. It’s eyes were intense like an animal’s. 

The creature saw the two men. It’s breath was heaving from some injury it nursed on its stomach, although Dream could not see the details. It huffed and snorted in agony when Dream raised the barrel of his gun. 

The jungle was still except for the harem of flies that buzzed nearby. Dream’s stomach turned, and he thought the fresh air smelled like death. He always hated this part. 

“Wait,” said the creature.

The world swug out of control. _Wait?_ He felt the musket slide out of his hands ever so slightly, the smooth metal of the barrel running through his fingers. _Wait? It can talk?_

“Shoot, man,” said his companion. Dream hesitated, his eyes wide with fear. It did not seem to be much of a surprise to his friend that the creature was intelligent, his urgent words shaking the air. “Shoot, man! We need the money.” He grabbed Dream’s shoulder, as if to snap him out of a trance. 

“Who are you?” asked Dream. A bird shrieked from far overhead and his shoulders tensed like something had hit him. 

The creature snorted again, his tusks glinting in the light. “They call me Technoblade.” 

“What are you?” asked Dream. _Are you human or pig?_

“I don’t know,” said Technoblade. 

“Enough of this!” yelled the companion. He raised his own gun and leveled it at the back of Techno’s head.

“No!” shouted Dream, and he pushed the weapon into the air. A shot rang out but it went up into the trees, leaving Techno unharmed. 

“Traitor!” said the companion. He swung the blunt end of the weapon into Dream’s skull, it connected with a sickening crack and a cry of pain. He prepared to do it again but a strange pair of hands stopped the blow. Techno was holding back the weapon. 

Dream stood, dazed, and with no time to think. He took one of Techno’s hands and grabbed it, and yanked the creature, pulling him through the jungle, away from the other man. They ran, hearing a shotgun behind them, the _bang, bang_ forcing their feet to move faster. 

The being’s footsteps faltered and Dream looked back to see a gash in his stomach that started in the middle of his chest and ran all the way down, bleeding. This must have been the injury he was nursing when they saw him in the clearing. Without a second though he scooped the man up on his back and kept running, panting. 

They ran until night fell. The stars brought themselves into the sky and Dream collapsed in exhaustion. “What have I done,” he said to the dirt. 

“You saved me,” said Techno, from beside him.

“I’ve sacrificed everything, that’s what. I can’t go back now. Do you know what they’ll do to me?” 

“Tell me, Poacher.” 

“They’ll kill me. For letting go a perfect pair of ivory tusks like yours. It would have fed so many of men and their families for weeks, and I let it go.” 

“Ah, right, my ivory is prized, apparently.” Techno leaned back into the floor. “And the ivory of my piggy brothers.” 

Dream raised his head, slowly. “You are… human?”

“I am half human. Half human, half hoglin.” 

“That’s disgusting.” 

“It is what it is, poacher.” 

Dream took a moment. The moonlight started to drift in through the trees, and he could hear the calls of wild monkeys in the distance. “Will your injury be fatal?” he asked Techno, suddenly remembering the huge red gash on his chest. 

“No. And I wish you would say that with less hope in your voice.”

“I can’t go back,” Dream said again. “I’m stuck out here. I can’t go back.” He brokenly touched his own hand, feeling the calloused spot on his palm. It was from years and years of pulling a trigger, from a gun which he no longer had- he had dropped it when he ran. “Technoblade is a strange name,” he murmured into the night. 

“It’s a hoglin name. They sometimes call me Nobl, taken from the middle of the name.”

“Noble?”

“Nobl.” 

“You know that Noble is a word in English? It means like, someone who is of fine quality. Someone who has high morals and ideals. Ironic, then, since your mother loved a pig.” Dream spat the last three words a little as he turned to his side. He felt tears slide down his cheeks. 

“Why are you crying?” 

“Because I have nowhere to go.” 

“Don’t say that, poacher.” 

“Well it’s true. I can’t go back, and I don’t have anywhere else.” The wetness rolled down his face as the night got colder. 

In near stillness, Technoblade put a hand on Dream’s shoulder. The blond man gasped and cringed away. “Don’t touch me.” 

“I was only trying to offer some comfort.” 

“Don’t bother.” 

Techno turned the opposite way. “Get some rest, then. We have a long journey tomorrow.” 

“Where will we go?” 

“Somewhere. This is my jungle, after all, and the jungle of my kind. There are many places we can go.”

“Anywhere with people?” 

“Maybe, that depends on how much trouble you are in.” He shifted. “Sleep well.” 

Tiredness took over, and despite himself Dream’s eyes started to close. He shivered but refused to get any closer to Techno, despite the warmth that the other man radiated. He remembered his life back and the camp and grievously bode it goodbye. The last thing he saw before sleep was the dark shadows of the jungle shulking across his vision.

\---

He awoke with strong arms wrapped around him, Techno’s arms. They were warm and sure like the sun. He shoved them away. “What the hell?” he asked the creature, as he stirred awake.

“You would have frozen to death otherwise,” Techno replied. 

“Would have preferred to.” 

“You truly find me that disgusting?”

A violent image of a pig crouched over a woman seared Dream’s mind. “Yes.” 

“I take offense to this.” 

“I don’t care!” 

“Then, why did you bother sparing me, if you hate me so much and you find me so disgusting? Aren’t my tusks valuable to you? Why not just kill me, and take them?” 

Dream thought back to the clearing. The broken little _Wait,_ that came from the pig-man’s mouth. “I pitied you.” 

“Is that all?”

 _The sun beating down on his different face, features distorted with inhuman genes. The gold clashing with the ivory. The look in his eyes, wild like a frightened animal, but sharp and intelligent like a human. The weird beauty of the creature. The uncanny majesty._ “That’s all.” 

“Well,” Technoblade turned away, “We can’t stay here. We have to keep moving, or your friend will find us. And I’ll end up with my skull ripped apart and you…” 

“Will be dead also.” 

“Then let’s go.” 

“Can you walk?” Dream eyed the cut on the man’s chest warily, although it looked better than last night.

“Yes, although I might have to take breaks.” 

“How did that happen, anyways?” They started moving through the jungle, Techno in the lead. 

“I walked into a trap, one with a piece of sharp, steel wire and mud. The steel cut into me as I lost my footing, I just barely managed to twist out of it.”

Dream winced. “I’m familiar with that one. One of the men in my camp designed it.” 

“Was it you?”

“No, it wasn’t me.” 

“Poacher, I realize something. I do not know your name.” 

Dream was silent. 

“Will you not tell me your name?” asked Techno. 

“Maybe later,” Dream replied, noncommittal. 

They walked in silence for a while, only the sound of their feet on the jungle floor. “You blame me for my parents,” said Technoblade. “That isn’t fair. I am what I am. I did not get to choose this, and I am not ashamed of myself.” 

“I can see that.”

“Good. Ah, we’re almost here.” The jungle begins to thin out. The trees are packed less tightly together, now, and the dirt and moss below starts to mix with sand. Before they know it, a desert sprawls out before Dream’s eyes. Pale yellow sands stretch out as far as the eye can see, and above it, a blazing sun. 

Techno starts walking. Dream hesitates. “Are you sure you know where you're going?” he asks Techno. 

“Yes.” 

Dream is not convinced. “Are you going to tell me where we are going?” 

“Are you going to tell me your name?” 

_Touche._ “Fine, then I’ll follow you, just don’t get me killed.” 

“You saved my life. I don’t have a lot of motivation to see you dead, even if you are a bit of a… what’s the word…” 

“Jerk?”

“Yes, that’s it.” Techno’s pink hair sways gently as he makes a raspy, high-pitched sound, which Dream realizes is a laugh.

“Screw you, pig-man.” But it doesn’t have as much fire in it as Dream would have liked. 

“Right back at you, poacher.” A desert wind sweeps up and pushes back Techno’s locks. The pearly white of his tusks looks beautiful against the endless sands. Dream looks away, startled by a blush that bloomed in his chest.

\---

The desert day is long. The sun takes its sweet time as it creeps across the sky, although really it’s no longer than it usually takes. It just feels longer when there’s no water for miles, the anxiety weighing on Dream with the force of an ocean.

“There’s no water,” he reminds Techno. 

“There will be before the day is through, trust me.” 

“I don’t know if I do. Say, what do pig-men eat?” 

“Not people, if that’s what you’re worried about.” 

Dream stopped walking. “Well I’m worried about that _now._ ”

Techno laughs again, and pulls on one of Dream’s sleeves so he keeps moving forward. The blond man lets himself be led. 

“I want to apologize,” says Dream, as the day bleeds into afternoon. 

“Oh?” 

“For calling you disgusting. Among other hurtful words, I think.” 

Techno was quiet for a long moment. “Do you mean it? Your apology, I mean.” 

“I… I do. I believe that people are more than the sum of their parts, anyways. Even though your parents were gross, that doesn’t mean you are. You are not them, even though you _are_ them, in a way.” 

“Hmm. I think you managed to sneak an insult in there.” 

“I’m sorry. But do you understand what I mean?” Dream looked at the other man and caught his eyes. They beamed with a fire to rival the heat of the desert, something deep-seated and true, blazing just below the surface. But it wasn’t anger, it was a different emotion, more steady and much less hateful. 

“I do,” said Technoblade, and the look seemed to flare up even hotter. 

The blond man looked away and took a shaky breath that he blamed on a possible heat stroke.

\---

They rested in the shade of a dune, towering high at their side. Dream looked up at it and suddenly felt dizzy.

“It’s too hot,” he said to Techno, and he rubbed his face. The skin was covered with a fine dust. 

“We’re almost to the water. A few more hours.” 

He blinked heavily, suddenly not feeling well. “Noble, I need to sleep.” Dream laid on his side and rested with his face in the sand, his cheek buried under the pale yellow. 

“Don’t- don’t do that,” Techno moved to maneuver him but he pulled his hand away when he remembered Dream’s reaction the last time he touched him. “Sit up, you’re going to have sand in your eyes and no way to get it out.” 

“I don’t care,” the other man murmured. 

Techno tisked. “At least sleep on my lap. Otherwise you are going to get a mouthful of dry sand and be even thirstier.” 

To his surprise, Dream pulled himself up and let his head rest on Techno’s lap. His heart churned as the other man took a deep breath, blond hair sprawled out on his thighs. 

Quietly, like there was something very delicate that could be broken even with sound, he asked, “May I touch you?” 

Dream nodded, head pressed against the other man’s leg. Techno let his hand fall on the other man’s back, stroking it gently. 

The minutes passed, and every point of contact between them seemed to melt them closer together. Dream didn’t sleep very deeply, and he could feel the movements of the other man, the rise and fall of his own breathing against the pig-man’s steady palms. Techno’s face was flushed when Dream looked up at the other man. 

“We must get going,” he said, softly. 

“Yeah.” 

They picked themselves up and walked on.

\---

An oasis came into the distance, a lake surrounded by tall palm trees and a small desert village. Dream ran to it and knelt by the water, saw it was flowing, and drank. Techno knelt beside him and cupped his hands, and took sips of the water from his palms.

“Oh my God, I was so thirsty,” said Dream. He sank his palms into the mud of the riverbed and plunged his head underwater. Relief prickled in as the dust washed from his face and the water cooled his forehead. 

When he resurfaced, Techno was looking at him curiously. “I think humans need more water than human-hoglins do.” 

“You don’t know? Haven’t you been around humans?” 

“I have, but not very often and not for extended periods of time. The only person I have known closely was my mother.” He moved so he could sit in the shade of a nearby tree. Dream copied the motion, relishing in the fresh air that the plants offered. “I loved my mother.” 

“Loved?” 

“She’s gone now,” said Technoblade.

“I’m sorry.” 

“It is what it is.” 

Dream stared at the being sitting close to him. The pearly white tusks jutted across his face, and Dream found himself reaching his hand out.

“What are you doing?” asked Techno, leaning away. 

“I- I’m sorry. I just thought that, well, they are so beautiful. And so prized. And I’ve never seen them on a creature that was alive, as sickly as that sounds.” 

“That is a little morbid,” He relaxed. “But you may touch them.” 

Dream reached his hand out again. He felt the smooth of the bone underneath his fingertips. Techno’s dark eyes watched him closely. He stroked a line from the top down to the bottom, where the tusk curved into the creature’s face. His knuckle accidentally brushed the place where the bone met the skin, and Techno flinched away instinctively. 

“Sorry,” said Dream. 

“It’s okay, it’s just a little personal there. Like putting your fingers on somebody’s lip.”

“Oh, I understand.” 

“It doesn’t mean you can’t do it.” 

Dream paused. “You’d let me touch your lips?” 

Techno didn’t respond, just leveled the other man with a steady gaze. 

Dream gripped the tusk with his full hand, holding onto it. It was firm, like he was trying to keep it in place. He brought up his other hand and grabbed the other one, as well. 

“What are you doing?” Asked Techno, eye to eye with the other man. 

Dream snorted at him, Techno copied it without thinking. Dream grinned loftily. “I knew you were more animal than human.” He dropped the tusks and turned away. 

“What-” The creature blinked slowly, processing what had just happened. 

Dream pretended not to notice him, taking off his jacket and washing his arms in the water.

Suddenly, Techno leapt up and tackled Dream to the ground. The blond man yelped in surprise and fear, as the other man pinned him to the ground. Dream’s hair sunk into the mud and his eyes shot open with fright. 

“Do you know why you yelled just now?” Techno asked, voice dripping with anger. He breathed heavily in the other man’s face. 

Dream sputtered. “Wh- get off of me!” 

“Do you know why you yelled?”

“Because you tackled me to the ground, now get off me!” 

Techno leaned down to speak into Dream’s ear. He could feel the prick of the other man’s tusk against his cheek, sharp, pressing ever so slightly. “You yelled for help. You yelled because a long time ago, people who yelled when they were attacked had a better chance at survival, because there was a chance someone would come and rescue them from the jaws of whatever feral animal was pouncing on them. Your brain thought I was a predator. Thought I was going to _eat you._ ” He growled the last two words and the other man paled. “You are the animal. You have it in you just as much as I do.”

Dream squirmed, not breaking eye contact. “Fuck you.” He tried to twist out of Techno’s grip but only succeeded in pressing his neck close to the other man’s mouth, who’s sharp teeth were bared. “Please,” said Dream, suddenly scared. 

“I wouldn’t hurt you,” said Techno, lips moving on Dream’s skin. “After all, you spared me. And I’m more human than you think.” He pulled away, finally. Crouched above the poacher, a desert breeze poured through his hair. 

They stayed in that position as Dream caught his breath and calmed down.

“You will want to wash before night falls. It will get colder then.” Techno was scanning the horizon. 

“Wash?” the blond man asked.

“Yes.” He looked down at him quizzically. 

Dream realized that he was lying in mud from where the other man had pushed him down. He clambered to his feet, steadied himself, pulled his shirt off over his head and took off the rest of his clothes. Then he turned around and faced Techno, laying his clothes somewhere they wouldn’t get muddy. Techno was watching him. 

Dream walked into the water. It was cooler than he expected, despite the hot sun above. Crouching down, he let it well up past his knees and he splashed himself, rubbing away the mud and sand. 

It was quiet for a while except for the sounds of gentle splashing. Dream could feel his heart in his stomach, painfully aware of his naked body and the steady eyes that grazed him from the shore. They followed his movements like the ocean follows the tides, with the easy push and pull of the sea.

\---

The stars became clearer in the sky as the sun dipped below the horizon, twilight basking the world in shades of rich blues and rose. Dream started to shiver, because although he was dressed his hair wasn’t dry yet, and it soaked the back of his shirt.

Darkness covered the world and cold seeped in. The sky above him was pitch black, and speckled with bright stars. The only light on their oasis was cast from the moon, which hung high overhead. 

Techno spoke: “I know we fought earlier, but you will freeze if you don’t come close to me.” 

Dream turned to where he heard the voice. “Why do you care?” 

“I don’t want you to freeze.” The words were convincing, although Dream felt like they shouldn’t have been. 

Slowly, Dream brought himself near to the other man. He laid a hand on his arm and heard the steady intake of his breath. Techno’s hair covered his neck and back, and the other man pushed it out of the way, so he could have a place to rest his head. Techno laid back and held the man’s shoulders, bringing him down with him. 

His collarbone was warm, and Dream pressed his cheek against the crook of his neck, brought a hand up and twisted his fingers in the other man’s jacket, the back of the hand pressed to Techno’s side. The movements were passive and simple, neither wanting to fight under the cover of darkness and the promise of sleep. 

“Poacher,” Technoblade said, “bring your leg up across mine. You don’t want to rest it against the sand, which will be as cold as ice in only an hour.” 

Dream did as he was told. His crotch was pressed into the side of the other man’s hip. “Your tusks won’t puncture me while I’m sleeping?” 

“I will keep them well away from you. Besides, they are not really sharp if you don’t apply force. Touch them, see.” 

He found the tip of the tusk with his fingers, he brushed it gently. “Not sharp,” he decided, although his index finger still stung when he pulled it back. 

They laid there for a while, and although they were so exhausted, they couldn’t sleep. Dream groaned in annoyance and Techno’s lips fell on his temple, naturally, only for a moment. 

“What was that for?” he asked, and his head felt light. 

“In hoglin tradition, it is a gesture meant to bring peace to whoever receives it.” 

“And in human tradition?” 

“I do not know,” Techno lied. _A kiss,_ he knew. 

Dream felt his eyes grow heavy. He buried himself closer to the other man and fell asleep.


	2. Guns and the Moon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> is this technically enemies to lovers? Should i add the tag? Anyways.
> 
> Also, sorry for not replying to the comments this time around, it’s just because i never really know what to say and i feel like my replies have become so cookie-cutter, which is not what i want, i want to genuinely express my appreciation to all of you, and so i’ve decided to remain quiet in hopes to remain genuine. Still, I really love reading all of them, and they really do make my day, and i will continue to read all of them!! I just thought this would be better. Also I’m always too tempted to give away spoilers, it’s getting dangerous!!! Lol. also u can always contact me on twitter if you miss me or somethin, nerdddd
> 
> In any case, I hope you enjoy this chapter. <3
> 
> Cw: guns, mentions of blood and gore (but nothing graphic)
> 
> Also i cringed several times while proofreading this, i can’t decide if it’s just because i’m the one who wrote it or if it really is a pile of hot garbage, i’ll let you decide. Okay now onto the fic

The sunrise on the oasis was all-consuming, since the light from it would get caught on the water, and then reflect onto everything else. Dream woke with his face painted orange and yellow, the bright sunlight shining right in his eyes. Techno’s arms were still wrapped around him. Because of how he was positioned the sunlight hadn’t touched his face, yet, and so he was still sleeping peacefully. 

Dream twisted around slightly so he could better observe the man. His nose was the most piglike part about him, and his tusks. His lips were human, except for the part at his jaw where the skin met bone. After all, tusks are just large teeth, just an extension of the jawbone, and Dream knew this from the times he had taken apart-

_I have never seen one of these animals sleeping. I know this creature’s bone structure inside and out, but I don’t know what they look like when they’re so vulnerable and at peace like this. If you took a picture of him now it might look like he was dead, but there is something unmistakably alive about him, even now, even in stillness. This is not like when they are dead. He looks content._

All that killing just to get to those prize tusks. It’s not like he liked the job, it was just what he _had_ to do. The places around here were poor, he had no money, he needed money, poaching was a job. Oh it’s so not easy in this damn world. Please don’t judge him. It’s just what he had to do. 

Techno stirred, arms still wrapped around Dream. But he wasn’t awake yet. His tusk nudged the side of Dream’s face in a sort of jerking motion, and that when Dream remembered the other side of this story. 

Hoglins were not good animals. For starters, they’ll eat ANYTHING. Be it meat, vegetable, excrement, half-dead, alive, they will drool and find it appetizing. They are a scavenging species, like hyenas, and they do not care what it is that’s going in their mouth- they will eat it anyways. If you bleed around a hoglin you have to be careful, because they will smell the blood and start to get hungry. Dream had lost many men in his company to these beasts with their vicious tusks. This battle between the two species was not as one-sided as it may seem, and often times a hoglin will catch someone by surprise and kill them in a bloody, brutal painting. Each time he had to watch one of these scenes unfold his hatred for the beasts grew and his empathy for them shot down with a bang. 

The man holding him so carefully had this blood within him. The blood of a monster, a murderer, a filthy scavenger. His cheek was pressed up against Dream’s now, he had tilted his head down so his eyes could stay out of the sun a moment longer. He lifted his hand, seeking purchase on something, a reprise from a fading dream he must have been having. Dream met the hand with his own and clutched it delicately, and the movement was so human and so sweet, seeking out another in the vulnerability of sleep, that for a moment they forgot who they were.

Techno snorted in his ear softly, that pig-like nose pressed close to his face. 

Dream freaked out suddenly and shoved the other man away. He woke up with a start. 

“Wha?” said Technoblade, just opening his eyes. 

“It- it’s time to get up.” He looked away. 

“Alright.” He rubbed his eyes. “You must be hungry. I know I am.” 

Dream looked at him warily.

He tisked. “Would you stop doing that? I’m not going to eat you. There’s a village not far from here, let's go there. Maybe we can also get some clean clothes.”

“And a bedroll,” Dream added.

“A bed? Oh you’re nuts, I can’t stand beds. Humans and hoglins alike are not meant to sleep on something squishy! They are meant to sleep on the ground, where they evolved.” 

“I actually think humans evolved sleeping in the trees.” 

“Ah whatever- ground, tree branch, it's the same idea. Not squishy.” He stood up with a light smile and extended a hand to Dream. “Let’s go poacher, no time to lose.”

\---

The village could hardly be called a village- it was much smaller, more like a town. The people seemed to know Technoblade, greeting him with a wave or a nod, some keeping their head down entirely. Some started to look very angry at his presence, Dream pointed it out in a hushed voice.

“They won’t hurt me,” whispered Technoblade. “They’re afraid of me.” 

They found something to eat and sat down somewhere secluded, unwrapping their food. Dream watched the other creature as he took a bite and chewed. 

“Does food ever get stuck in your tusks?” Dream asked. 

“Does food ever get stuck in your teeth?” 

“Sure. So it's like, the same?” 

“Yeah, kind of. It’s just a big tooth. A big, glorified tooth that has caused me more trouble than it’s worth.” 

“I see.” Dream took a bite. They ate in silence. Dream watched the other man. He didn’t look like a scavenger when he ate, someone who would tear apart anything put in front of him. _But he is,_ Dream reminded himself, _He is and always will be. An animal. A freak. Disgusting, disgusting, animal. I’ve seen what those teeth can do to a man. I’ve seen it. It’s carnage._ He blanched and put down his food. 

Technoblade looked up. “What’s wrong? Thinking about all of my kind that you’ve killed?”

Dream burned red with a sudden anger. “Me? I would argue that each and every one of those battles was a fair fight.” 

“Fair?” Techno deadpanned. “You have guns.” 

“You could’ve had guns. But we evolved to be intelligent and make stuff and you involved to have big useless tusks. Useless against a gun, anyway.”

“Not so useless to you, apparently, since they sell for so much.” 

Before Dream could open his mouth to defend himself a woman dressed very simply came running up to Techno. It is one of the people who waved to him earlier. “They are here,” she tells him, and his face goes pale as he grabs Dream’s arm and turns and runs. He leads him behind a wall that is starting to crumble from the years. He is sneaking behind it, presses a finger to Dream’s lips to silence him, and as he reaches the other side he realizes he is trapped because the poachers are now in the center of the marketplace and will see him if he runs out. Dream peers over the shoulder and recognizes many of the men, including his companion, the one that he ran away from only two days ago. The men turn in their direction and Dream and Techno pull back behind the wall as silently as mice, each praying to their own god that they were not seen. 

_So quickly our anger and discourse was forgotten in favor of survival,_ Dream thought, as he desperately looked for a way out. 

The woman who helped Techno was greeting the poachers warmly, offering them food from the stalls and asking if they need anything. They ask if she has seen the hoglin-man. She says no. She waves to some other girls who are standing just a ways away, waves them over to come and be hospitable, but they hang back out of fear. After all, they know Techno is here, and if the poachers know the women lied to them? Who knows what could happen. These men are already living outside the law, and for some of them murdering a person is not so far out of their moral code. And some of them have begun to not really mind blood. It’s just a side effect of all the killing, and it’s not really their fault. It’s like how a hoglin evolved to eat anything, in the same way these men have adapted to killing, just for survival, it's really just nature, it’s really not their fault. The woman is brave and a good liar. But the men are still suspicious. 

Dream finds himself clutching the back of Techno’s shirt, like he was going to keep him safe by doing so. Like if the men came and tried to drag Techno away he would hold him back, and put up a fair fight. _But there won’t be a fair fight, they’ll just shoot us,_ he thought bitterly. _How ironic._

The woman gestures with broad arms when she says “You must be thirsty.” She said the right thing, because they are- it’s a days walk across the desert to get here and they probably didn’t know about the oasis. “There’s a well at the edge of town,” she continues, “I’ll lead you all there.” 

They leave some of their heavier bags and follow her. The men are just barely out of sight when Technoblade takes Dream’s hand and yanks it, and they run across the marketplace. The villagers see them but all make sure to keep their heads down or look away, lest the poachers suddenly return, and they are accused of being accomplices in helping an animal and a traitor get away. Suddenly, Dream stops. 

“What is it?” Techno asks, voice gravelly with fear.

Instead of answering Dream drops to his knees and starts rifling through one of the men’s bags. He finds what he’s looking for and pulls it out- a gun. It’s the same model as Dream’s old one, standard issue for all of the men. He is looking for a stack of bullets but he gets scared and forgets about it, standing up to run with Techno again. 

“Wait!” says one of the townspeople. “They’re going to think _we_ stole it!” 

Dream looks up at the man who spoke. He curses when he realizes that he’s right, and tries to put the weapon back, but he can’t bring himself to set it down. “It’s okay,” he tells the man, “They won’t know which one of you took it.” He pushes Techno forward and they go. 

They run until the very edge of town.

\---

They are hiding in one of the abandoned homes on the outskirts of the little village.

“You,” Techno says, between panting breaths, “Are absolutely filthy.” 

“That isn’t fair.”

“I think it is. Stealing that gun? When you knew those people would take the blame? Those kind people who let us run, who helped us, who didn’t turn us in? You’d let them take the blame? Your own species!” 

“It’s fine! Guns go missing in our company all the time, either lost or destroyed, it’s never a big deal.” 

“They’re going to get in trouble for that. You didn’t even need that gun.” 

“We have no other protection. We have nothing else!”

“We HAD their good nature. Not anymore, I guess, you ruined that, all for some stupid gun! God, I hate those things.” He sat down, still out of breath. “You wanna know the real reason you couldn’t leave it behind? Because for the last however many years you’ve been at this filthy job you haven’t put it down, and now you don’t know how to live without it. You’re a killer more than I am.” 

“Fine,” Dream said, sinking down to the floor next to him. “I’m a killer. I’m a killer. Is that what you wanted to hear me say? I’m a traitor over and over again, to my company and to the villagers, and I’m filthy, and I can’t live without a gun. I don’t care.” At some point his voice broke. He stroked the barrel of the weapon with his left hand. “But we needed this thing, and deep down you know it.” 

“We?” Techno’s voice was bitter. “How do I know you’re not just going to shoot me with it, and turn my body in for a few shiny dollars. I hate that you have that. Get rid of that.” 

“I’m not gonna use it against you! I couldn’t. I’ll prove it.”

“How?”

Dream set the gun down and let it clatter to the floor. He brings himself up on his knees and takes Techno’s face in his hands, cupping his cheeks, tilting the other man’s head up so that he is looking at him. Dream’s face is the grey storm clouds before rain, a churning underwater current of heat and hot chemicals, the tides on the ocean of a full moon. It pushes and pulls, and twists and burns, and prepares to break and let fall in a pouring cascade. “Technoblade,” he says, and his voice is the river in a monsoon, swelling, full. “Technoblade, technoblade,” he stokes the other man’s cheeks, who is looking up at him, eyes seeking. “Technoblade,” he says again and holds the other man’s head very carefully and leans in between the tusks and wants to press a kiss to his lips in impulsive devotion, but instead he presses their foreheads together. It is enough, either way. 

“I believe you,” says Techno, when the other man finally pulls back. His hands are still on his face. 

The dusk settles into night. Dream watches the sky flicker different shades of amber and gold through the broken window. He does not see anyone walk past, and he takes that as a good sign. 

The gun is on the other side of the room, although it isn’t a very big room. Techno comes by his side as the moon becomes clearer in the sky. It is waning, and it will disappear on them one of these nights. When that time comes they will be plunged into darkness, animal and hunter, and Dream is afraid of what will happen then. But for now the night is bright. And Techno places his hand on Dream’s shoulder, who leans into it, under the cover of the black sky and the ivory moonlight, reflected on the pig-man’s beautiful tusks. 

“Do you have anything you want to say,” Dream whispers. Sounds pour in from the window, of the air and activities from the villagers not far from here. They have not heard any gunshots tonight, and so Dream thinks there was no punishment for the lost gun, or maybe they have just not realized it was lost yet. 

“I still want your name.”

“I’ll tell you. It’s Dream.” 

“Dream?” he snorts. “Your parents must have been very optimistic about you.” 

His voice has no spite in it when he says, “Speak for yourself, Noble.” 

“Yes… I see what you mean.” 

They retire in the corner of the room, holding each other closely together. It’s cold again but not cold enough to die, still they would rather have each other’s warmth than the stony unvarnished floor of this abandoned house. Their legs tangle accidentally and Dream instinctively presses a kiss to the inside of one of Techno’s tusks, which the other man graciously ignores. They fall asleep. The gun is in the other corner, it’s silver barrel reflecting in the moonlight, too much like Techno’s tusks.

\---

In the middle of the night Technoblade shakes Dream’s shoulder. _Wake up,_ he says, his voice barely audible even in the silence of night. There is someone outside their house, and he is walking around the perimeter in a circle, the click of his boots militaristic.

“They found us,” whispers Dream, just as quietly. 

Dream and Techno get up as silently as they can and crawl through the broken window, the gun strapped to Dream’s back. The man outside hears them and starts circling the house again, but he can’t pinpoint which window they’re crawling through, and he’s a little lost. He’s trying now to open the front door, but it’s too late, Dream and Technoblade’s feet have already touched the ground. 

“Hey!” He shouts, running to the other side of the house. They start running again, quickly, the other man’s footsteps following them. There are some tall grasses that separate this edge of town from the desert, and Dream thinks that he can see them start to thicken in one direction, so he leads Techno that way. He doesn’t get very far before he collapses to the ground. 

Panting, face first in the dirt, Techno crouches beside him. “Get up,” he hisses. But Dream can’t. He’s been running nonstop for the last two days and he hasn’t barely had enough to eat, and his legs aren’t working anymore, and he tries to move them but he can’t. He looks up at Techno with wild and scared eyes. 

The creature lifts Dream up and carries him on his back. Then they are running again. 

The fields start to thicken like Dream thought they would, the sound of them tearing through the tall, dried grasses is loud in the night- but they are hidden. The moonbeams fall between the yellowed blades and cast shadows on the floor, and more than once Dream thinks he sees the other poacher’s feet jumping out in front of him, but then they keep moving and he realizes it is just an illusion. 

Techno is panting, heavily, but he is okay. He knows when you are carrying someone on your back and you need to move fast you should not run like you normally do, because normal running involves jumping. Jumping, as in, taking both of your feet off the ground at the same time. This exerts too much energy for too little payoff- you and the other person are too heavy, and so you don’t go very far, and it takes a lot of energy to take you both off the ground. Running when carrying another person on your back is more like slinking, where you take long, low strides, not leaping in a run, but rather pushing yourself forward, keeping low to the ground. Your center of gravity is important, too. You must lean forward quite a bit, to account for the weight on your back- but not so far forward that you might fall. And whoever you are carrying must be high up on your back, not hanging low like a sloth. This will keep your center of gravity in an ideal place, so you do not have to exert any extra energy staying balanced. If you do this you can carry someone for long distances. 

That’s how Technoblade is running, leaning forward, going through the fields, Dream holding on tightly to the other man’s chest and neck, his shoulders resting on Techno’s. He kept moving his hands like he wanted to bring them down and run on all fours, but his human-like body wasn’t letting him, or maybe it was his pride. 

“The villagers didn’t warn us,” said Technoblade, between ragged breaths. “That’s your fault. You ruined their goodwill.” 

“I’m sorry,” says Dream, “Put me down now, I can run.” 

Techno does so, and he collapses to the ground in exhaustion. Dream kneels beside him, ready to return the favor and carry him, when he stops. He can’t hear anything, except for their breathing. The footsteps have halted, the man who was chasing them probably gave up. 

The only sound in the night was the animal’s heaves and gasps.


End file.
